• by Wendy Davis , over 1 hour ago

A new Minnesota law requiring social platforms to display cigarette-style warning labels violates the First Amendment, the tech industry group NetChoice alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The organization, which represents large companies including Google, Meta and Snap, is seeking an order declaring the law unconstitutional and blocking state officials from enforcing it.

The statute, slated to take effect July 1, requires social media platforms to display a "conspicuous mental health warning label" every time someone accesses the platform.

The law also provides that label must remain on the site until a user either exits the platform or "acknowledges the potential for harm and chooses to proceed to the social media platform despite the risk."

NetChoice argues in a complaint brought in federal court in Minnesota that the law violates the First Amendment for several reasons, including that it "compels covered websites to speak the state’s message on the highly controversial topic of 'potential negative mental health impacts' of social media on users, which is the subject of intense scholarly and social debate, as well as active litigation."

The organization adds that the law would require warning labels on "large swaths of valuable, protected, and entirely innocuous speech."

"For example," NetChoice writes, "it would require warning notifications to a retiree checking neighborhood updates on Nextdoor, a teacher sharing lesson plans on Pinterest, and a college student watching a cooking tutorial on YouTube."

NetChoice also says the measure's definition of "social media platform" is so hazy that it's not clear which companies are covered by the statute.

The statute broadly defines social media platforms as interactive services that allow account holders to create and share user-generated content "for a substantial purpose of social interaction ... or personal networking."

That definition has numerous exemptions -- including for ecommerce, streaming services, and online video games -- provided that those services have content that is not user generated, and that any "interactive functionality" is "incidental to" such content.

"The phrase 'incidental to' is vague," NetChoice writes. "The Act provides no standard for distinguishing 'incidental' interactive features from non-incidental ones -- leaving every website with a comment section to wonder whether it must speak the State’s message."

Other states including New York, California and Colorado have passed similar laws requiring warning labels on social media sites. 

Last year, a federal judge in Colorado blocked that state's law, which would have required social platforms to either provide minors with information about social media engagement that helps them "understand the impact of social media on the developing brain and the mental and physical health of youth users," or send pop-up warnings every 30 minutes to minors who use the platforms for more than one hour a day (or between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.).

Colorado officials are appealing the injunction.